Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (Hazwoper) is a training I have been fine tuning for the last several years. One of my pet peeves is death by PowerPoint. I hate boring training. I cannot stand sitting in a dull class and I especially cannot bear to see my students looking aloof.
To teach Hazwoper, OSHA requires that the teacher be Authorized as an Outreach trainer in both Construction and General industry. In addition, the authorized trainer must have to take a Hazwoper class himself. When I felt ready to add Hazwoper as a service, I traveled to Memphis, Tennessee for my class.
I was very disappointed. I paid a healthy price for this 40-hour 5-day class. It was completed in about 3 days and each day were short ones. I felt like this was a complete waste of my time. The instructor read through all the PowerPoints quickly in a fraction of the intended time without explaining anything. He quickly had us don an A level suit and that was all the hands-on activities. I learned nothing and already felt that I could do a much better job with the current knowledge I already had.
This bad experience led me to retake the Hazwoper class with Greenville Tech. My experience was completely different there. They taught the 5-day class and used all 5 days. They answered questions and had a variety of hands-on activities. The difference in training was like the difference between night and day.
As a result of this class, I started asking some questions of Joy Finch, the director of Environmental Health and Safety. I discovered that Greenville Tech participates in a training provided by National P.E.T.E. National P.E.T.E trains instructors at community colleges throughout the US and they have a grant to prepare Hazwoper trainers. With the support of Greenville Tech, I was able to avail myself of this impressive training.
I was required to take another 40-hour Hazwoper class once again as well as many other related classes. Then I took a two-week trip to Iowa to do a deep dive into practical techniques and adult training. But wow was that some great class! It got my creative juices flowing. I came up with all kinds of ideas to improve the quality of my training in every class I teach, not only Hazwoper.
After that experience, every new class I teach comes with a new idea on how I can improve them. I came back and have collaborated with Greenville Tech to teach Hazwoper classes from time to time. However, the most fun I have is when I contract directly with companies to teach it. This is when I am free to put into practice many of the ideas that I have for the benefit of the employees.
40-hour Hazwoper class is the foundation. It teaches the foundation of working in a hazardous waste site.
24 hours is typically for hazmat teams and teaches emergency response to release of hazardous chemicals.
8-hour class is a refresher.
I often teach a 40-hour hybrid class where I teach hazmat teams a blend of the 24-hour emergency response and supplement it with basics from the 40-hour class. I spice it up throughout with lots of educational and fun hands-on activities. South Carolina has a lot of companies using dangerous chemicals. Some companies need to provide some fresh new training for their hazmat teams. Others need to update their training and yet others need to develop one. Whatever the case, it would be an honor and joy to help you with that. Oh, and lets not forget I do it all in English or Spanish.
